Oldest robot or highest hours that is still running and earning a living

[Skooter]

The robot with the highest hours that I know of is a Fanuc RJ at a company in Ohio that had 94000 about a year ago.  They only use it about 15 hours a week.  The rest of the time, it's waiting for an input, racking up the hours, 24/7/365.

Skooter

[hjgts8]

I remember reading an article about an ASEA (ABB) robot with 88,000 hours on the clock........... I think it was welding up shopping trolleys or something.

[jseger]

I have a motoman UP6 with around 8000 hours of WELDING TIME!  I think the power on time is like 40,000 hours.

[TylerRobertson]

I know where there's a Motoman K10  - ERC controller doing some ROUGH work. I'll check the hours next time, but the thing is nearing 15 years service

[Industrialrobotix]

We have certainly seen robots with a TON of hours....Some RH Fanuc units with 90k+....I have seen plenty of ERC motoman,C1 Miller OTC, RC Fanuc still operational....would hate to program it though!!

[Minimann]

Hi,

know a MOTOMAN RG! Robot which is welding in sweden. A couple of weeks ago the welder has been changed to a newer one, but the damn robot still works! This Robot is nearly 25 years now but I dont know the hours...


I only know 3 people who can programm such a Robot...

[James]

This one's pretty old too: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/f1F5vIBov8I&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/f1F5vIBov8I&rel=0</a>

[Industrialrobotix]

Those old EX series Kawasaki's are still around....we resurrected a few from a junk yard that were stored outside for who knows how long...they ran fine...not the easiest things in the world to operate with those old Toyopuc PLC's, but they worked...the arms were built pretty solid.

[polarbear]

Hi, I was the systems manager a Clares MHE we had a 3 IRB6/S1 robots that worked nearly non stop for years, here's the article:-

 http://www.abb.co.uk/cawp/seitp202/737EEF62DFAA583680256DE200517085.aspx

Incidentally I still have that very robot (pretty much worn out) as well as two mint condition versions (never used in production).

Julian.

[James]

I'm totally blown away by how robust these things are. I really do hope we get the same use out of the Kawasakis we just bought.   

Although I'd be happy for them to last just long enough for me to find another job. 

[Ztek]

I did throw out a ABB IRB3000 from 1993 this winter. I did not check the counter, but it have been used 24 hours a day most of its life serving two wet blasting machines. The cycletimes in the machines is short, so the robot was moving most of the time. It must have ended somewhere around 100000h working. IRB3000 was not very well sealed, so it was a lot of problems with it at the end with water and sand going into the encoders.
Now it is replaced with a IRB4400 from 1994, but this robot have had a simple life serving a CNC mill with long cycletimes... It works well and even if it was planed as a temporary solution I think it will work for many more years in its new task.

[rdixiemiller]

 There are 2 RJ series controller Fanuc P-155's at Yamaha in Newnan. They were installed in July 1994 and have been painting 20 hrs a day ever since. I replaced a servo amp on one in 2001, rebuilt the wirsts at the same time because the bearings were full of paint. As far as I know, they are still percolating along.